Top Insider Trades: Millennial Media Shareholder Cashes In

BIF fund manager makes significant sale.

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In a victory for common sense, the trading behavior of company executives, directors, and large shareholders in the stocks of firms they're registered "insiders" at have been proven profitable to monitor by both academic studies and (more importantly) the experience of your fellow professional investors.

Below are lists of the top 10 mainly open-market insider purchases and sales filed at the Securities and Exchange Commission Tuesday, October 30, 2012 as ranked by dollar value.

Please note, however, that these are factual lists, not buy and sell recommendations. Dollar value is only one metric to assess the importance of an insider transaction, and, frankly, often not even the most important metric that determines if an insider transaction is significant.

The two largest and most recent insider sales were not done on the open market, according to SEC filings. New Enterprise Associates sold $21.48 million worth of Millennial Media (NYSE:MM). New Enterprise is just the latest of the mobile advertising company's beneficial owners to cash in after the company completed its secondary offering. Bessemer Venture Partners, Columbia Capital, and the Charles River Partnership had already sold shares along with three company officers.

The Enest Horejsi Trust, fund manager for the Boulder Growth & Income Fund (NYSE:BIF) since 2002, sold $10.5 million worth of stock in the non-diversified, closed-end management company. According to Morningstar, the fund's largest holdings are BerkshireHathaway A stock (NYSE:BRK.A), Yum Brands (NYSE:YUM), and Berkshire Hathaway B stock (NYSE:BRK.B), which collectively represent over 46% of the portfolio.

At InsiderInsights.com, we find new investment ideas just about every day using these and more intricate insider screens to determine where we should focus our subsequent fundamental and technical analysis. And while stocks don't (or shouldn't) move up or down based on insider activity alone, insiders tend to be good indicators of when real stock-moving events like earnings surprises, corporate actions, and new products may be in the offing.